Ülo Pikkov is an internationally renowned filmmaker, producer and film scholar. He studied animation at Turku Arts Academy in Finland and directed several award-winning animation films (Empty Space, Tik-Tak, Body Memory, The End, Dialogos). Pikkov is also the author of “Animasophy, Theoretical Writings on the Animated Film” (2011). He graduated from Law at the University of Tartu, focusing on media and author’s rights. He is completing his doctorate at the Estonian Academy of Arts and producing animation and documentary films at Silmviburlane.

Body Memory (Keha mälu)
Ülo Pikkov2011, RT 10:00, Estonia

What can an old apple tree tell us? What mysteries are hidden in his roots, gnarled over time? Does he remember the serpent and the lost Paradise? Our body remembers more than we can expect and imagine. It keeps alive the stories of our parents and grandparents as well as their ancestors. But how far back is it possible to go in your body memory? The stop-motion animation, “Body Memory”, takes as its central concept the idea that our body remembers, not only individual experiences, but the sorrow and pain of our predecessors. A powerful visualization of subconscious processes and the hidden horror of deportation. Inspired by historical events: the Soviet deportations from Estonia in the 1940s.

Tick Tock (Tik-Tak)

Ülo Pikkov

2015, RT 10:00, Estonia

The Watchmaker controls time, but the mouse living in the Watchmaker’s workshop controls the clocks. Thoughts about time and its ephemeral nature.

Empty Space (Tühi Ruum)

Ülo Pikkov

2016, RT 11:00, Estonia

In 1944, Leonhard Lina (1914–1994), a former officer of Estonian Defence Forces, went into hiding to avoid capture and imprisonment. Trapped in a small hollow in the double ceiling of a potato storage and longing for home, he built a miniature replica of it. He crafted 217 tiny pieces of furniture and household items. The doll furniture was meant as a present for his daughter, Merike, whom he’d last seen a few months after her birth. Leonhard made for her a perfect copy of their former apartment with available materials. After ten years of being underground, Leonhard received a message that he was not being accused of anything. Merike was 10 years old when she finally got her present.

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EstDocs is a not-for-profit Estonian Documentary film festival and competition held in Toronto that presents the unheard stories from the Baltic nation of Estonia.